Facts, Faith, and Film-Making: Jesus’ Passion and Its Portrayal A Study Guide for Viewers and Reviewers This guide is intended for anyone who sees or hears a portrayal of Jesus’ Passion – the suffering Jesus underwent in the final hours of his life, when he was arrested, condemned, and crucified. To understand the Passion, you do not need special training or advanced learning; nor will you need them for this guide. We offer you some background on the challenges of telling the Passion story, as well as some hints for how to hear or watch it. The Passion story has a long history. For Christians, it is a source of life and salvation. For Jews, it has led to condemnation and violent attacks. It is Jesus’ Passion, but it also brings out passion (strong feeling) in those who hear and view it. That passion should be directed to living in the way Jesus taught and should never again be directed against Jews as a group or individually. --The Christian Scholars Group I. What’s The Fuss? You are about to see a Passion play or a film about the Passion or to hear the story read publicly, perhaps even in church. Maybe you have just had one of these experiences. What will you make of the story? How will you respond? What will your reaction be to what you see and hear? Is This Fair? Your reaction is important. The Passion was It may seem odd to anticipate our personal or col- first told in order to evoke a personal, even lective response to a film or play before we see it. spiritual, response. It is meant to confront you Don’t we just see something and respond to it? Is with the truth about God, who in love and it fair to approach a play or film with expectations, justice acts to save the creation that has fallen judgments, or standards that may seem irrelevant away from God’s ways. As part of that creation, to it? Of course it can be unfair. In most cases, you are invited to identify with the story and its even if we know the story, the producer of a film or characters, and to carry its meaning into your play is free to interpret a story in any artistic way own life. Your response will depend in part on at all. Then we are free to say whether we like it. how different characters are portrayed, what emotions you feel, and what you believe to be With the Passion, however, things are different. true at the end of the presentation. These We not only know the story, but we know the factors will be very strongly influenced by the effect of the story in past generations. Christians filmmaker or playwright, who faces many who saw or heard the Passion, especially during challenges in telling the Passion story. the Holy Week before Easter, have reacted violently against the nearest Jews. We even know One major challenge is the fact that our of some Christian rulers in the Middle Ages who sources—the gospels--come from a time two warned the local Jews to stay indoors on Good generations after the events they portray. This Friday in order to protect them from violence. time lag accounts for differences between the That’s more than just a bad review. circumstances of Jesus’ time and those shown in the gospel narratives. In the years just So our response to this story is important in before the gospels were written, in 66-70 CE, ways it will not be for other stories. We have a Roman armies suppressed a Jewish revolt by responsibility to be informed and to consider the destroying Jerusalem. The gospel writers later larger picture in which the Passion is presented. interpreted this to mean that God had vindi- Anti-Jewish images and slogans born in by-gone cated Jesus and his message and punished Passion portrayals are still used to slander Israel the city where he had been rejected. and the Jews. Therefore, every presenter of the story must be alert to its potential for doing When the gospel writers focus on the meaning “collateral damage.” of the story for their own times, what can get Page 1 Page 2 lost is the original setting of the story of a Jew who inspired hope in some Jews, stirred fear in others, and was executed by a powerful foreign ruler. The complexities of a Jewish community with many strands of belief and practice – in some ways like the variety of today’s Protestants – are buried under the strong theme of accepting or rejecting Jesus that dominates the gospels’ perspectives. That theme became even stronger Writing for their own times, the gospels writers reflected in the centuries after the gospels at least two struggles in their narratives. In one, they tried were written, when early Christian to integrate their Jewish background and beliefs with their theologians framed the new faith in new identity and beliefs centered in Christ. In another, terms that are explicitly anti-Jewish. church and synagogue vied for Roman favor. This can Taking their cue from certain New help us understand why there are so many stories of Testament contours, these writers Jesus debating issues of Jewish law, as well as why some portrayed unbelieving Jews as the Jewish leaders, such as Pharisees and the high priest, are enemies of God and the opposite of portrayed so negatively. There had also been harsh Christians. Their “teaching of Roman persecution against the churches, so they had contempt” has influenced Christian reason to shift blame for Jesus’ death onto Jewish leaders theology down to our own times. and avoid stirring up anger against the Romans. It is only in the last half-century that this teaching of contempt has been repudiated by many Christian churches, which no longer accept it as the framework either for teaching what Christianity is or for understanding Judaism and the Jews in any age. They have expressed remorse over the violence that Jews have suffered because of it. But because the gospels continue to reflect 1st-century settings of conflict and opposition, it is especially challenging to portray them in this new spirit. And the challenge is greatest where the opposition appears greatest – in the Passion. Ask yourself what you think about who killed Jesus, and why they did it. How Viewing did you form your ideas about this? How important are these ideas for you? Hint When you see or hear a Passion portrayal, how will you assess its meaning? II. Whose Story Is It? From Jesus’ own century we have only the four gospel accounts in the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) for the story of his betrayal, arrest, trial, condemnation, and crucifixion. They are sparsely told, with little detail. John’s whole account uses fewer than the 700 words of a typical op- ed piece in your morning newspaper. There is no description of the cross or the size of the crowd or the number of soldiers in the detail that executed Jesus. These all have to be supplied. What some call the “fixed points” of the story are few: Even these “fixed points” are not presented identically by all the gospels: Jesus is arrested with involvement only one gospel (John) says Pharisees were involved; by Jewish leaders the high priest does or does not accuse Jesus; Jesus is accused by Jewish leaders the accusation comes at night or in the morning, Peter denies knowing Jesus at the high priest’s house or elsewhere; Pontius Pilate examines Jesus the suggestion to release Barabbas comes from Pilate or from the Jewish leaders; Pilate releases Barabbas the two revolutionaries revile Jesus Jesus is condemned or one seeks his favor; Jesus is crucified with two others Jesus is offered a bitter drink before he is on the cross who are political revolutionaries or after, and he accepts it or not; Soldiers divide Jesus’ garments all of Jesus’ garments are torn apart Jesus dies on a cross under the or the tunic is claimed whole by casting lots; charge, “King of the Jews” Jesus is crucified on the date, Nisan 14 or Nisan 15. Page 3 This leaves a good bit of “free space” to fill in details, and the gospel writers began the process with some scenes that have become very familiar. Judas’ regret and suicide, Pilate’s hand-washing, Herod’s part in judging Jesus, Jesus’ words to the “daughters of Jerusalem,” Pilate’s debate with Jesus over kingship and truth – none of these was told by more than one gospel writer. Some of these details may be historical, but the individual gospel writers included them because they clearly suited a purpose. When Luke said that “Herod and Pilate became friends” on the day Jesus shuttled between them, it emphasized Jesus’ peacemaking power, for “they had been enemies.” Matthew recorded the crowd as invoking Jesus’ blood on themselves and their children because it made the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE into a fulfillment of that curse. John is explicit about why the soldiers had to cast lots for an undivided tunic: A Passion portrayal showing it fulfilled a scriptural image from the Psalms. only “what we know happened Another significant challenge, then, for anyone portraying the historically” would be short, Passion is to provide the filler that makes for a complete and confusing, and incomplete. compelling story. To do so, one may choose from among individual gospel accounts, combine them together, draw on tradition or legend, make informed guesses, even use reports from moderns who claim to have seen the Passion in a vision.